


Alfirin, Simbelmynë, Uilos

by Certh



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Essays, Gen, Research, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 19:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4758068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Certh/pseuds/Certh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Almost every encyclopaedia focusing on JRR Tolkien's legendarium states that these three terms are simply different names for the same flower. This short essay compares all the available information we have on the subject.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alfirin, Simbelmynë, Uilos

**Alfirin, Simbelmynë, Uilos  
** **\---**

 

In almost every encyclopaedia or lexicon that deals with JRR Tolkien's legendarium, a search for the entries _alfirin_ , _simbelmynë_ and _uilos_ will reveal that the three terms are synonyms; that _alfirin_ or _uilos_ is the Sindarin name of the flower which the people of Rohan call _simbelmynë_ in their tongue, a flower also known as _evermind_ in the Common Speech. That equation arises from Christopher Tolkien's commentary found in _The Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth_ , and many fans of JRR Tolkien's work and writers of fanfiction set in Middle-earth agree with it. Very few publishings – including David Day's _A Guide to Tolkien_ , the online encyclopaedia _The Thain's Book_ and the online wikibook _Guide to the Lord of the Rings_ – argue that the three terms do not refer to the same flower. David Day, for example, supports that the _simbelmynë_ is that flower which the Elves call _uilos_ , but that the _alfirin_ is a different flower altogether.

A closer examination of JRR Tolkien's published writings can help clarify whether _alfirin_ , _simbelmynë_ and _uilos_ are indeed one and the same or not. All information we readers and fans have on the matter can be found in JRR Tolkien's _Letters_ , _The Two Towers_ , _The Return of the King_ , _The Nomenclature of_ The Lord of the Rings and _Unfinished Tales_.

 

** Concerning _alfirin_ **

In _The Lord of the Rings,_ there is only one mention of _alfirin_. There the flower is described as bell-shaped and golden, growing in Lebennin: 

> _“_ _And the golden bells are shaken of mallos and alfirin  
>  _ _In the green fields of Lebennin”_

      The Return of the King, Book 5, Chapter IX

  
In _Unfinished Tales_ , the alfirin described is white and grows on the summit of the Halifirien where Elendil's tomb stood, though there is no reference to the flower being bell-shaped:  

> _“Then Cirion went up the stair with Eorl and the others followed; and when they came to the summit they saw there a wide oval place of level turf, unfenced, but at its eastern end there stood a low mound on which grew the white flowers of_ alfirin _, and the westering sun touched them with gold.”_

      Unfinished Tales, Part Three, Chapter II, section (iii)

  
In a note to this chapter, Christopher Tolkien writes:

> _“_ alfirin _: the_ simbelmynë _of the Kings' mounds below Edoras, and the_ uilos _that Tuor saw in the great ravine of Gondolin in the Elder Days . . ._ Alfirin _is named, but apparently of a different flower, in a verse that Legolas sang in Minas Tirith (_ The Return of the King _V 9): "The golden bells are shaken of mallos and alfirin / In the green fields of Lebennin." ”  
>  _

  
  
In one of his letters, dated 1969, JRR Tolkien writes: 

> _“_ Alfirin _('immortal') would be an immortelle, but not dry and papery: simply a beautiful bell-like flower, running through many colours, but soft and gentle.”_

  
Despite Christopher Tolkien's theory that the alfirin mentioned in _The Return of the King_ might be a different flower from the alfirin found in _Unfinished Tales_ , this last description by JRR Tolkien is in harmony with all cited references concerning the imagined flower: the bell-like shape may very well apply to the white alfirin growing on Elendil's mound, whose shape is not mentioned at all, and the reference to the flower's 'many colours' encompasses both the golden alfirin of Lebennin and the white alfirin of the Halifirien (cf. the description of _uilos_ below).

 

**Concerning _ simbelmynë_**

In _The Lord of the Rings_ , the simbelmynë is described as a white, star-like flower, blossoming year-round: 

> _“Upon their western sides the grass was white as with a drifted snow: small flowers sprang there like countless stars amid the turf . . . Evermind they are called,_ simbelmynë _in this land of Men, for they blossom in all the seasons of the year, and grow where dead men rest.”_

      The Two Towers, Book 3, Chapter VI 

 

In _The_ _Nomenclature of_ The Lord of the Rings – a grouping of Tolkien's notes made after the Dutch and Swedish translations of _The Lord of the Rings_ had been published –, first included in a collection of essays named _A Tolkien Compass_ and published in 1975 (cf. _The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion_ by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull), the description of the simbelmynë is more detailed, and the meaning of its name in the Common Tongue is explained:

> _“_ Evermind _. A flower-name, translation of Rohan_ simbelmynë _. The element_ -mind _has the sense 'memory'; the name thus resembles 'forget-me-not', but a quite different kind of flower is intended: an imagined variety of anemone, growing in turf like_ Anemone pulsatilla _, the pasque-flower, but smaller and white like the wood anemone. Translate by sense. The Swedish and Dutch versions both omit the element_ -mind _, and so produce names equivalent to 'everlasting flower', which is not the point. Though the plant bloomed at all seasons, its flowers were not 'immortelles'.”_  

This note made by JRR Tolkien solidifies the fact that the simbelmynë is only white in colour and clarifies that the flower is not an immortelle.

 

 

** Concerning _uilos_ **

There is only one occurrence in JRR Tolkien's legendarium where the name _uilos_ is used to refer to a flower, found in _Unfinished Tales_. There the uilos is described as a white, star-like bloom, growing in Gondolin, blossoming at all seasons: 

> _“Tuor saw beside the way a sward of grass, where like stars bloomed the white flowers of_ uilos _, the Evermind that knows no season and withers not . . .”_

      Unfinished Tales, Part One, Chapter I

 

In a note to this chapter, Christopher Tolkien writes:  

> _“_ _These_ _[_ _i.e._ _uilos]_ _were the flowers that bloomed abundantly on the burial mounds of the Kings of Rohan below Edoras, and which Gandalf named in the language of the Rohirrim (as translated into Old English)_ simbel-mynë _, that is "Evermind," "for they blossom in all the seasons of the year, and grow where dead men rest." (_ The Two Towers _III 6)  
>  __The Elvish name uilos is only given in this passage . . . as the Quenya name_ Oiolossë _("Ever-snow-white," the Mountain of Manwë) was rendered into Sindarin._ _”_

 

 

** Putting it all together **

Examining the available information, decisive conclusions can be made.

The first is that, even though Christopher Tolkien equates the alfirin with the simbelmynë, the two are not one and the same. A bell-shaped flower that is an immortelle and runs through many colours cannot be the same as a star-shaped flower which blooms at all seasons, is not an immortelle, and is expressedly only white in colour. An additional piece of evidence to support this comes from a letter JRR Tolkien sent to Amy Ronald the year following the publication of _The Lord of the Rings_ , dated 1956:

> _“Botanists want a more accurate description of the_ mallorn _,_ _of_ elanor _,_ niphredil _,_ alfirin, mallos _,_ _and_ symbelmynë _. . .”  
>    
>  _

If he had meant for _alfirin_ and _simbelmynë_ to be two names for the same flower, he would be unlikely to list them separately.  


The second conclusion to be made is that _simbelmynë_ and _uilos_ are one plant. Both are called _evermind_ in Westron, both are star-shaped and white, blooming year-round.  
One might argue that the fact that uilos “withers not” indicates it is an immortelle, as immortelles are flowers which “can be dried without loss of form or color” after they have been picked up and thus “never fade away” (cf. [_www.thefreedictionary.com_](http://www.freedictionary.com/), entry on _immortelle_ ; and [_www.plantesystem.com_](http://www.plantesystem.com/), entry on _everlasting flower_ ). However, since the text in _Unfinished Tales_ which features the description of evermind/uilos took its final form when _The Lord of the Rings_ was finished and the everlasting nature of evermind rejected (cf. _The Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth_ , Introduction; and _Nomenclature_ , entry on _evermind_ ), it seems more plausible that the phrase “withers not” is a vivid illustration of uilos' blossoming at all seasons.

Thus, the final conclusion is one that supports equation only partially: _simbelmynë_ and _uilos_ are the same plant, while _alfirin_ is a different flower altogether.

* * *

  
**Sources:**  
JRR Tolkien, _Letters_  
JRR Tolkien, _The Lord of the Rings_  
JRR Tolkien, _The Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth_  
Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, _The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion_  
David Day, _A Guide to Tolkien_  
[Guide to the Lord of the Rings](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Guide_to_The_Lord_of_the_Rings/Animals_and_Plants)  
[The Thain's Book](http://thainsbook.net/plants.html#Simbelmyn%C3%AB)  
[www.plantesystem.com  
](http://www.plantesystem.com/plants/everlasting-flower-immortelle-flower-42.html)[www.thefreedictionary.com](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/immortelle) 

 

 


End file.
